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The President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has said that all the fishing villages in the coastal area of the country should be linked to their District Headquarters (DHQs) through Broadband fibre and wireless connection. For this, the fishermen will be provided with broadcasting facilities through Satellite radios and HAMSAT network. Mobile cell phone with GPS facility may also be provided for each boat for emergency communication. Dr. Kalam further said that the electronic connectivity will also provide the local fishing population data, local meteorological and local sea state data through SMS from the Ground Village Knowledge Centres obtained from the nearby Meteorological station, Disaster Management stations, District Headquarter station and the other service providers. Dr. Kalam said this while inaugurating the second convention on National Alliance and the first convocation of the National Virtual Academy (NVA) for rural transformation. The President gave away 140 NVA fellowships comprising of members drawn from 15 States.
Delivering his lecture on "Knowledge Sources and System Integration" to the First Fellows of the Jamshedji Tata National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity Dr. Kalam mainly touched on PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas). He said that the aim of National alliance to achieve Mission 2007 i.e. to make every village a Knowledge Centre, is indeed a noble mission. One of the important missions, is generating capacity for creation of employment, otherwise the knowledge centres will become ineffective, he said. He expressed his happiness over the first step that the alliance partners' planning to connect 25,000 villages as Village Knowledge Centres. He hoped these Centres will help to reach the rural population in terms of information, knowledge and skill empowerment. He said, "Nearly 700 million people of India live in the rural areas in 600,000 villages. Connectivity of village complexes providing economic opportunities to all segments of people is an urgent need to bridge the rural-urban divide, generate employment and enhance rural prosperity. We need to innovate to increase connectivities to the villages making clusters out of them even while retaining their individualities".
As regards Domain Service Provider for PURA Complex, the President said that Kisan Call Centre (KCC) established by the Ministry of Agriculture in partnership with TCIL (Telecommunication Consultant India Ltd) is working and is being used by the farmers and fishermen in different parts of the country. The Kisan Call Centre offers three levels of interaction and support in Agriculture, fisheries and Animal Husbandry domains through the nationally nominated experts and Corresponding directorates at the Central level. In the last one year of its operation, the call centres have provided consultancy, information, assistance and guidance to over 5 lakhs callers from the villages of eight states. Anywhere in India, people can call 1551 as a toll free number to get the services. The top users of the scheme are Maharastra and Tamil Nadu followed by UP and Rajasthan. The call centres started functioning and are answering to the queries generated by different callers i. e. the farmers, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications & Information Technology said that the way to reach the rural hinterland is by using ICT through Village Knowledge Centres. The Village Knowledge Centres will provide the village folk to access to various services like education, information related to agriculture, registration of births and deaths, communication facilities such as text and voice mail, fax, telephone, etc. Shri Maran further said that the Government has recognised the potential of the ICT and has decided in principle to promote the establishment of a large number of ICT-based community service centres for which the modalities have been almost finalised.
Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman, National Commission on Farmers and Dr. M.V. Rajasekharan, Minister of State for Planning also spoke on the occasion.
RM/AMA-110705 - Mission 2007
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